On Wednesday, Philip Hammond will deliver his first Budget since filling the shoes of George Osborne after the latter unceremoniously followed David Cameron out of Downing Street in the wake of the Brexit vote.

It will be the Chancellor of the Exchequer's first and last Spring Budget as he has ordained that the Government's primary fiscal statement will henceforth occur in the Autumn. There will therefore be a second Budget this November, which some analysts have suggested could make this speech a damp squib.

It's also the first Budget since the referendum and it comes just as Prime Minister Theresa May is poised to pull the trigger on the Lisbon Treaty’s Article 50 to formally set the wheels in motion for the United Kingdom's European Union departure.

Chancellor Philip Hammond will deliver the first of two 2017 Budget statements on Wednesday 8th March.

May, Hammond and many of their Government colleagues will be keen to create an impression of economic strength, with counterparts across Europe watching closely as Britain heads into what will be tense negotiations with the EU.

Hammond has ditched his predecessor's target of balancing the books by 2020, vowing instead to put the public finances back in the black 'as early as possible' in the next Parliament, which gives him greater freedom.

He may take the opportunity to announce some voter pleasing changes such as extra money for the NHS, increased spending on social care for the elderly or educational reform.

But in a sign that the squeeze in Whitehall is set to continue, departments have already been told to find savings of up to 6 per cent by 2020 under plans to cut billions from public spending.

The Chancellor will also present the Office for Budget Responsibility’s latest forecasts for the UK economy, setting the parameters for future tax receipts.

Strong forecasts and the government can bank on more to spend, but lower growth means lower tax revenues, and the Chancellor must cut his cloth accordingly.

Prime Minister Theresa May with her German counterpart Angela Merkel.

Economic forecasts and borrowing

Chancellor Philip Hammond is set for a windfall in next week's Budget as forecasts are expected to show a sharp growth upgrade and lower-than-expected borrowing.

The Office for Budget Responsibility is likely to unveil a hefty hike to this year's growth outlook in its latest independent forecasts after the economy continued to show surprising resilience in the face of Brexit uncertainty.

Experts also predict higher tax receipts will help Mr Hammond undershoot his borrowing target, with experts at PwC pencilling in a £45billion windfall within the next five years.

PwC said the Chancellor will 'bank' most of the £45billion borrowing boost given the unclear economic outlook, spending only on 'political priorities, like the NHS and social care'.

The spotlight is set to fall on what economists believe will be a markedly rosier picture for the economy in 2017 than in November's Autumn Statement.

Economist Allan Monks at JP Morgan said the OBR is set to revise up its 2017 growth forecast close to 1.9 per cent, from the overly-pessimistic 1.4 per cent it predicted in November.

This robust economic performance is helping drive tax receipts higher and boosting the Government's books, with official figures recently revealing the highest January surplus for 17 years.

Public sector net borrowing excluding state-owned banks was in surplus by £9.4billion in January, up £300million year-on-year.

Mr Monks said data suggests borrowing is on course to undershoot the existing 2016/17 projection of £68billion by at least £10billion. This downgrade to around £58billion is expected to be followed by a cut to 2017/18 borrowing from £59billion to around £50billion, he added.

Property

After the recent Housing White Paper and a wave of changes to the taxation and regulation of buy-to-let, those in the property industry are hoping for a quiet Budget this year.

Stamp duty

There have been the usual calls for stamp duty reform, with Ray Boulger of mortgage broker John Charcol, suggesting a rethink. Currently, properties sold at between £925,001 and £1.5million attract stamp duty at 10 per cent while those sold for £1.5million or more attract a 12 per cent rate of stamp duty.

Boulger highlights the catastrophic effect that the hike in stamp duty has had on transactions of higher value properties – the latest figures show there has been a massive 75 per cent decline in sales above £10million, with 15 properties selling in the last six months compared to 61 over the same period in the previous year.

Property sales for homes worth between £5million and £10million have also halved from 201 to just 99. There has also been a slump of 33 per cent in properties worth between £1million and £2million, from 7,285 to 4,913.

Boulger claims a limited reduction of the SDLT threshold at the top end of the scale would have a ripple effect on transactions and associated industries such as estate agents, builders, surveyors and retailers, which would promote wider economic growth and not cost the Treasury much in revenue, if anything.

House building regulation is likely to feature in the Budget as Britain's housing shortage continues

Digital tax delay

Others have encouraged the Chancellor to delay HMRC from starting the business of making tax digital. MTD, as this initiative is referred to, includes a plan to introduce digital record keeping and quarterly online tax reporting. From April 2018 this is expected to be mandatory for most self-employed people as well as landlords.

Chris Springett, partner at Smith & Williamson, the accountancy, investment management and tax group, said: ‘There have been seismic changes to the taxation of property in the UK over the past few years and, as the new tax year approaches, this rate of change seems set to continue. The property sector needs the Chancellor to cut some it some slack in the forthcoming Budget and put a brake on some of the change.

‘The Chancellor should take this opportunity to defer the compulsory start of making tax digital to allow landlords the opportunity to pause and take stock of their situation. If the Government wants to drive behavioural change through taxation then it needs to ensure taxpayers are aware of the issues. So far it has not highlighted the sea-change that MTD will have upon taxpayers.’

Help to Buy

The Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme was brought to a close on the 31 December last year but the equity loan part of the scheme remains in play for those looking to buy with a 5 per cent deposit and a top up 20 per cent equity loan from the Government until 2020. There have been various calls from those in the industry for the Government to extend this scheme beyond the 2020 deadline with many experts warning that a decision on this is needed in the very near future.

Although there have been no rumours that the Chancellor will use his Budget speech to confirm an extension, experts warn that in view of the long lead time from acquiring a building site, through obtaining planning permission and then selling the new homes house builders need to know in the next few months whether the scheme will be extended in order to plan the acquisition of sites.

Housebuilding

The Housing White Paper, published in February, demonstrated support for smaller scale house builders and developers after acknowledging that nearly 60 per cent of all new homes are built by just 10 big builders. The Government said in the paper it wants to change this by encouraging smaller developers who they hope will use modern methods of construction to speed up how quickly homes are built. The detail on how they achieve this has so far been thin on the ground.

Christian Faes, of development lending platform LendInvest, said: ’Our research shows that 80 per cent of small-scale developers have gone out of business since the last house building boom. That’s an appalling statistic. It’s meant less employment, less entrepreneurialism and fewer new homes on British streets where large-scale house builders didn’t pick up the slack.’ He wants to see the Chancellor announce further detail on delivering tangible support for these developers.

Former Chancellor George Osborne is thought to have ditched the idea of slashing pension tax relief for fear of a backlash from voters ahead of the Brexit referendum.

Pensions

Pension tax relief

A radical plan to slash the pension tax relief bill - either by launching a Pensions Isa or imposing a flat rate for all earners - could be back on the table.

Former Chancellor George Osborne is thought to have ditched the idea for fear of a backlash from voters ahead of the Brexit referendum, and Philip Hammond ducked the issue in his Autumn Statement last year.

Everyone saves into a pension from untaxed income at present because the Government pays tax relief at the 20 per cent, 40 per cent or 45 per cent income tax rates. But this costs some £34billion a year, a tempting pot of money for any Chancellor.

Meanwhile, there could be some further tinkering with annual and lifetime allowances, which are the upper limits on what you can save into a pension pot over one year and in total and still qualify for tax relief.

State pension age

The state pension age is due to rise to 67 for both men and women by 2028, but ex-Confederation of British Industry boss John Cridland has been tasked with recommending increases beyond that point.

Cridland has not yet spelled out when a hike to 68 will happen, but the Chancellor could anticipate his forthcoming report by introducing a more flexible state pension age - letting people retire earlier if they wish, in exchange for smaller payouts.

This would be a bold move but in keeping with the spirit of Osborne's pension freedom reforms, which were intended to give people as much power as possible over their own retirement finances.

State pension triple lock

A demand for the Government to ditch this valuable pledge in 2020 was launched by MPs on the Work and Pensions Committee last year.

For now, annual rises in the state pension are decided by whatever is the highest of price inflation, average earnings growth or 2.5 per cent. Critics say the cost is unsustainable, but the triple lock is extremely popular with a pensioners - a vocal and influential group of voters.

Prime Minister Theresa May has promised to honour a Tory manifesto pledge to protect the triple lock.